| Lady Banks | |
| Birth Name: | Dorothea Hugessen |
| Birth Date: | 8 November 1758 |
| Death Date: | 1828 |
| Spouse: | Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet |
| Parents: | William Western Hugessen Thomazine Honywood |
Dorothea, Lady Banks (née Hugessen, 8 November 1758 – 1828) was an English heiress and collector of ceramics. Her collection of ceramics, which she displayed in the dairy of her home at Spring Grove, is recorded in her Dairy Book.[1] Like the ephemera collection of her sister-in-law Sarah Sophia Banks, it is informative about women collectors in the Georgian period.
She was born Dorothea Hugessen on 8 November 1758, one of two daughters of William Western Hugessen of Proveden, Kent, and his wife Thomazine, née Honywood, the daughter of Sir John Honywood.[2] She was a 'well-acred heiress' at the time of her marriage to scientist Sir Joseph Banks on 23 March 1779,[3] and she was described by Banks' colleague Daniel Solander as 'rather handsome, very agreable, chatty & laughs a good deal.'[4]
Dorothea converted the dairy on their property at Spring Grove into an exhibition-house for her collection of ceramics. Banks said that she was 'a little old-china mad, but she wishes to mix as much reason with her madness as possible.'[5] She sought authentically Eastern pieces rather than those produced for the western market, and designed a classification system for them. In 1804 King George III and his family visited her collection, and she served him produce from the dairy on some of her china.[6]
The collection was sold at Christie’s in 1893 after the death of her great-nephew, who had inherited it, and found to contain Minton, Crown Derby, Sèvres, and Dresden ware as well as oriental pieces.[7] Dorothea inherited the ephemera collection of her sister-in-law Sarah Sophia Banks, who lived with them, and donated it to the British Museum in her name.[8]
The Lady Banks rose, brought to Kew Gardens from China by William Kerr and cultivated by her husband, was named after her.[9]